Biden: Russian occupation will not prevent Ukraine from joining NATO

U.S. President Joe Biden has stated that Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territories will not hamper Ukraine's NATO membership prospects but the necessary criteria must be met in order to get NATO Membership Action Plan.

“The second question is [Does Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories rule out Ukraine ever entering NATO?], the answer is no. The first question [When will Ukraine get NATO Membership Action Plan?], it depends on whether they meet the criteria,” Biden said at a press conference in Brussels following the NATO summit on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

He stressed that Ukraine still had to “clean up corruption” and meet other criteria to get into the MAP. “In the meantime, we will do all that we can to put Ukraine in the position to be able to continue to resist Russian physical aggression, and it will not just depend on me whether or not we conclude that Ukraine can become part of NATO, it will depend on the alliance and how they vote. But I know for one thing, they [Ukraine] have to convince [NATO], and it’s not easy,” the U.S. leader said.

Biden recalled that he had made a speech years ago to the Verkhovna Rada saying that Ukraine had an opportunity to do something that’s never occurred in its history. “Actually generate a democratically elected and not corrupt led by oligarchies in any of the region’s nation. And I pointed out to them when I made that speech, that they will go down in history as the founding fathers of Ukraine, if in fact they do that,” Biden noted.

To date, according to him, Ukraine still has to make a lot of efforts.

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